MIRACLE IN THE RUBBLE
Rescuers hunt survivors as death toll tops 25k with warnings it could double
An angelic-looking little boy was miraculously saved from the Turkey-Syria earthquake rubble yesterday – after 133 hours trapped underground.
Aliye Dagli, two, became a symbol of hope after being carried out in the arms of a masked rescuer.
He had been pulled from a collapsed building in Hatay, which is one of southern Turkey’s worst-hit areas. Thousands more rescuers, including some using thermal imaging cameras, desperately searched for survivors last night as the number officially killed since Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake topped 25,000.
That figure included 21,848 in Turkey and 3553 in Syria and there were grave warnings the death toll could double. United Nations chief Martin Gr if fiths, who yesterday joined the relief effort in the neighbouring province of Kahramanmaras, said: “There are many rumours out there about where it may end up. “I think it’s really difficult to estimate very precisely because you need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it’ ll double or more. And that’s terrifying. It’s deeply, deeply shocking. What happened in the epicentre of the earthquake is the worst event in 100 years in this region.”
Amid the horror, there were stories of hope and heroism.
Adil Cemil, 33, was also rescued after 133 hours, while four-year-old Sengul Karabacak was rescued from the rubble of her family’s f ive- storey building in Islahiye an hour later.
Pensioner Umit Gulcicek was rescued alive from rubble in Antakya after 130 hours.
And 35-year-old Ozlem Yilmaz and her six- year- old daughter Hatice Yilmaz were rescued from underneath rubble 117 hours on.
A family of five were also found alive after 129 hours trapped underground.
Havva Aslan and her daughters Fatmagul and Zeynep were the first members of the family to be pulled alive from the rubble of their home in Nurdag, southern Turkey.
They were closely followed by her son Saltik and her husband Hasan.
Overjoyed emergency teams cheered and chanted “God is great” as the family emerged. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was last night facing criticism and public anger over his government’s slow response to the disaster.
Syrian president Bashar Assad and his wife yesterday visited injured victims in a hospital in the northern coastal city of Latakia.
The Di sa s t e rs Emergenc y Committee, which brings together 15 leading UK aid charities, last night said its appeal has raised £ 52.8million in just two days – including £5million in aid match from the UK Government.
DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “We’re incredibly grateful to the British public for their hugely generous response to this horrific disaster.”